EUROPA, MON AMOUR (UK, 2016, Lawrence Lek)
Lawrence Lek – EUROPA, MON AMOUR (2016 BREXIT EDITION)
UK 2016, 14’, English OV
With the UK cast out of the EU, Dalston has degenerated into a post-apocalyptic utopia. Come and explore this drowned world of the near future: filled with forgotten nightclubs, neon-lit music venues, voting booths, Turkish snooker clubs and luxury penthouses. This site-specific simulation brings together multiple histories of the area into a single zone. As players roam around, a voiceover extracted from Alain Resnais’ HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR speaks to them about the nature of memory. It is a gradual, but relentless sense of forgetting that comes with any form of urban transformation.
“Brexit would be a step back to the 19th century, to a world where the UK saw itself as the global superpower. Except now it would be a delusion. EUROPA, MON AMOUR is a virtual fantasy world based on this very real, but troubling, scenario. Dalston, acting as a proxy for the whole of the country, is buried under mountains of sand, luxury apartments lie in ruins, and only cultural landmarks like the Rio cinema and Efes snooker club are reminders of the vibrant life of the pre-Brexit UK.” (Lawrence Lek)